"I understand that it is not the way everybody lives, to go to somebody's house and have a wonderful dinner that is catered by 8 servants and then sit in their living room and have a giant screen come down and you watch a movie."-Jackie Collins on Hollywood lifestyles

AMERICAN PIE: REUNION

SYNOPSIS:It has been 13 years since Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Stifler (Seann William Scott) lost their virginity in high school. Now Jim is married to Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), Kevin and Vicky (Tara Reid) have said goodbye, Oz and Heather (Mena Suvari) have gone in different directions and Fincher has never forgotten Stifler's Mom (Jennifer Coolidge). Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy) is still at hand for fatherly advice. What will happen when everyone gets together?

Review by Louise Keller:True to its origins, the reunion of the American Pie characters, 13 years after Jason Biggs infamously turned apple pie into crumble, delivers everything that is expected, plus a little bit more. Between the expected gross-out and comedic capers as the gang gets back together for a school reunion weekend celebrating the Class of 99, it is easy to remember why the original film was such a success and what drew us to the characters in the first place. Sequels American Pie 2 (2001) and American Pie: The Wedding (2003) continued the love-affair to some degree before the franchise skipped in another direction with three offshoots. Like There's Something About Mary (1998), in its time, American Pie offered something raw and real and the crude gross-out ejaculated naturally - if you'll pardon the expression.

Clever writing by Harold and Kumar screenwriters Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg brings affection and understanding of the characters, each of whose storyline evolves naturally as it is developed and harnessed. There's a nice balance between the crass and the clever, the ridiculous and the heartfelt. It's good entertainment with plenty of laughs and an infectious sense of fun. It's been nine years since the wedding and Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan) now have a two year old son. Jim and Michelle are both still horny, but parenting makes it difficult to have a spontaneous sex life. Jim still relies on a sports sock and lubricant, while the girl with the flute lets a shower rose tickle her fancy.

It seems like old times as all the gang gets together at East Great Falls in Michigan a few days before their high-school reunion and we quickly learn what they have been up to for the past few years. Oz (Klein) is a TV dance-off celebrity with a model girlfriend (Bowden); Kevin (Nicholas) is happily married; Finch (Thomas) has become an adventurer while Stifler (Scott) is an office dogsbody, as mischievous and unbearable as always.

There are chuckles galore as misunderstandings and compromising situations evolve. Like the sequence of events involving Jim and Kara (Cobrin), the curvaceous 18 year old stunner he used to babysit, but who now harbours a king size crush and wants him to be her 'first'. The scene in which a topless Kara is being carried upstairs, while Oz, Finch and Stifler are trying to distract her parents, is very funny.

Unsurprisingly, Stifler's buxom mum (Coolidge), reclining on an animal print chaise-longue, also has a presence and delivers some laughs but it's Eugene Levy with his impossibly mobile eyebrows and hilarious manner as Jim's Dad, who gives the film its big heart. The father-son advice has always played an integral role in grounding the characters and here the pendulum swings back and forth as father and son offer each other well-meaning advice, albeit burdened with too much information.

It just goes to show: sometimes that last piece of pie can be as good as the first.